{Insert SomethingWittyHere}

you can explore different environments

there are different mechanics that interact with each other and you can experiment with them and use them in creative ways

there is more than one way to do things

you can explore them more and more deeply and see new things instead of just "finishing" and being done

visuals guided by artistic style instead of just having overly realistic graphics

The main thing that immediately repulses me in looking for games is when they are too visually busy. It's a HUGE ick that I can't get past. I can't interest myself in a lot of platformer games because there's so many fucking fireballs and bullets and explosions and magic sparkles flying around everywhere.

Whenever I try to search games that fit my preferences using existing key words, it misrepresents what I actually like about them in a grotesque manner.

I hate visually busy games, but if I search "minimalist," I get Geometry Dash But In A Hotel Bathroom. I like exploration in games, but this seems to be automatically understood as "open world 3D rpg where you run around kilometers of low poly generic terrain doing fetch quests for NPCs."

I like experimenting freely with mechanics, and I like open-endedness and creativity, and I like being able to fuck around without being driven constantly toward a fixed goal.

This is probably the worst mismatch: searching for this brings me to a lot of games without strong elements of challenge or consequences, or without a "lose" condition in general, but most of the games I've liked recently (dwarf fortress and rain world being the main ones) are like, notoriously difficult, so I can conclude that I actually like difficulty.

My most enduringly loved game is still Minecraft but I have a very different history with Minecraft than most people, only starting to play in 2019 and playing only single player for a very long time before diving into anarchy servers and never looking back. I think I can say I have a deep understanding of the mechanics and gameplay of Minecraft and I think very few people understand Minecraft for what it is on its own, outside of the community and culture that it has. In particular, the fact that vanilla Minecraft gameplay, with no mods, no cheats and no multiplayer, is ridiculously punishing. The best gear the game has to offer can get demolished in mere seconds by mid- to late-game threats and if you die you can lose all your gear permanently.

The player community teaches others how to build a raid farm, how to farm mending books off of villagers, and how to make mob spawners into XP grinders, but if you are playing alone without being connected to the community, you are likely to never figure these things out.

On the face of it, without a deep knowledge of how the game's mechanics can be exploited, losing a max enchant netherite gear set will set you back by like. 20 hours' worth of grinding. This is basically the worst consequence for failure that happens in a game short of permadeath and all it takes is a few seconds and bad luck. That is truly insane.

I prefer games where combat mechanics are something you can choose to engage with or not, that is, where combat is only one way of solving problems. "Kill everything in your path" is a super boring way to interact with a game world's environment. However, the ability to choose to solve problems with combat or not, with both paths having equal utility, seems to be not very common at all. Games are usually split into No Combat or Yes Combat.

The game is visually beautiful and every single screen gives thoughtful and creative worldbuilding without speaking a single word. I especially love the symbols and graffiti that are visible throughout the world.

The art, music and gameplay come together to create emotional responses that are allowed to be complicated instead of being flattened into something defined by the experience the player wants to have, like "scary" or "relaxing." There are profound elements of tenderness and tragedy in Rain World that go beyond the explicitly articulated story.

Also, the combat mechanics are excellent and well-thought-out, but it is not possible to solve all your problems with combat, nor is it necessarily required to solve any of your problems with combat. You really have to interact with the game environment in a thoughtful and adaptive way and make choices and evaluate risks every moment. A lot of times, death is based on luck, but this emphasizes that there really isn't a right or wrong way to survive Rain World. You're just a little guy trying to stay alive.

The community's motto, "Losing is Fun," gets more and more true the more you understand the game. As long as you are losing, you are having fun.

The blurb said the shot was taken in Granada, Spain, by Agneta Fondén.  No other info, so I have no idea how old, etc.  There's a game (from 1988) that uses a similar pattern on one of its pieces, but this could predate it by at least a thousand years  — or not.  But the pattern intrigued me, so I made a texture map and used Blender's geometry nodes (no generative AI) to set up a hexagon grid with random rotations for the tiles:

That's all done with a single design:

You'd think this would have a name, right?  (For its historical use as an architectural / decor tile — although I've found out more about its use in games, that's not what I'm looking for.)  Like the Penroses do (and no, it's not one of those).  But I've had no luck finding it, or any other info.  Any (human only, please) help?

When I was watching Atlantis as a young boy, I always thought 'that blonde lady is so evil.' Flash forward to now and I see a much more complicated character. She's the type of character I'm used to loving: Morally complex badass women, who have done terrible shit and she is clearly no exception.

Disney is widely known for their simplicity when it comes to handling morality. It's usually all just black and white. No middle ground, but however, there have been plenty of times where they subverted this. First, you had the huntsman from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Not complex really yet not your typical bad guy. Then you have Megara, my other favorite disney gal who happens to walk alongside the path of gray. She was in love with Hercules while also working for the big bad of the movie, Hades. And for my last example I bring you Dinosaur. A film where none of the antagonists are exactly evil. One is an arrogant jerk (Kron) who believes in survival of the fittest, his second in command (Bruton) though actually gets a redemption arc, and then ofc you got the carnotaurs, which I'll be honest with you unlike the other characters mentioned here, they're basically just natural predators searching for food. Nevertheless, they do perfectly tie into what im talking about. they aren't hunting out of pure malice, rather for survival in a post mass extinction world. With that being said I believe they all in some way, shape, or form paved the way for Helga Sinclair.

Atlantis is not your typical disney movie as it's full of mature themes and lacks songs and I think that it makes perfect sense to have a character who subverts a lot of Disney's tropes. Enter Helga: a ruthless leader and mercenary who aids a monster in stealing the Heart of Atlantis, but also contains a buried conscience.

Throughout the movie, we see her humanity break through in moments such as the vigil scene, where see her mourning for her fallen crew members and of course, the scene where they're entering Atlantis. Helga questions exploiting these people while her boss Rourke juat shrugs it off (more on that guy later). Even after Helga is revealed to be a bad guy, we see her let Kida pray without stopping her as well as her genuine shock and awe in reaction to Kida transforming and in her final moments we see her going up against Rourke, who has just betrayed her. This scene, especially the line "You said we were in this together! You promised me a percentage!" showcases that they had a code which he broke. I think this sequence alone with the amount of interpretations you can come up with sum up how complex of a character she is.

In fact, I have an interpretation of my own, if we go by her bio, it provides strong evidence that Rourke had groomed/corrupted her into becoming a pawn in his own twisted game. She was young enough to be corrupted when he started training her. I think it does justice for not only Helga and Rourke, but also for the story as he manipulates Milo. The thing is Helga had the capacity to help out Atlantis adn do good things. Instead she chose undying loyalty to a nasty man who she never expected to betray her. The movie never states what her true goal is outside of money, but I believe its financial security so she could never be put in a position of weakness ever again by building herself an impenetrable fortress of wealth. I saw one interpretation on here I liked about her reason being to prevent her younger brothers from being drafted into World War I.

Overall, her story is very compelling once you piece it together although it always remains puzzling because I can never really put her morality in one single category. Helga unlike Rourke, is a tragic antagonist that we can relate to. There are moments where she gets scared and reacts in ways Rourke could never. Shes not robbing the Atlanteans or trying to kill milo and friends out of pure malice. Shes just doing her task. While yes her actions are objectively awful and shes definitely not a good person, I cant help, but feel sorry for her. She had it very rough, wasn't really close to anyone other than Rourke, who constantly vouched for her, but also again saw her as a pawn. Growing up in a military background in the late 1800s-early 1900s was already hard enough.

Upon reading the first draft of The Lost Empire's screenplay, I discovered she was always meant to be this morally ambiguous figure. Shes just less explicit in the final product. Disney finally crafted a character who challenges the viewer by forcing them to look beyond a black and white mindset. A character who is both lovable and tragically a villain.

the op linked the study in the replies & i’ve been skimming it & it’s actually rlly rlly interesting to think abt